Before you can shift your attention to the many ins-and-outs of individual reference formatting (and trust us, there are so very many ins-and-outs), there’s one vital part of your research paper you’ll need to set up first: your reference page.

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A properly formatted reference page will help your readers find your sources at a glance. At the same time, it will make things a bit easier for whomever’s tasked with grading your paper, and anything you can do to make that job less tedious can’t hurt, right?

Reference page formatting requirements

1. Add a new page
   Insert a page break at the end of the body text. The header continues with the page number in the top-right.
2. Heading
   On the first line, type References, centered and bolded. Use the same font and size as the rest of the paper.
3. Spacing
   Use double spacing throughout the list. Do not add extra blank lines between entries.
4. Alphabetical order
   Sort entries alphabetically by the first author’s last name. For works without an author, sort by the first significant word of the title (ignore leading articles: A, An, The).
5. Hanging indent
   Apply a 0.5″ hanging indent to each entry. The first line is flush left; lines after the first are indented by 0.5″. Set this in paragraph settings, not with the Tab key.
6. Punctuation and italics
   There are different rules for how to set punctuation, italics, and formatting for each reference type in the APA 7 format. We'll cover the basics in an upcoming blog post. Keep DOIs and URLs active when possible and avoid a period at the end of a DOI or URL.

Or …

If you’ve been following our APA 101 series, you know where we’re headed with this, so here it is: If you’re using PERRLA to format your research paper, you won’t have to worry with any of the above. PERRLA will take care of all of it, automatically, from the moment you add your first reference to your paper – new entries appear in the correct order with double spacing and hanging indents. DOIs and URLs format correctly with a single click. It’s just that simple. You can try PERRLA completely free for 7 days here (no credit card required).

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We’ll see you next time, when we’ll cover a brief but solid game plan to help you determine what should ultimately appear on your reference page.